Diagnostic strips or test strips are extensively used to detect the presence of certain substances in fluids. In medical procedures, for example, certain substances in biological fluids such as urine or blood are indicative of particular medical conditions. The strips are coated with one or more reagents that exhibit a color change when exposed to the significant substance. For example, strips which are sensitive to glucose and acetone are used in the diagnosis and monitoring of diabetes patients.
The strips are customarily packaged in bottles or similar containers after manufacture and it is desirable that each bottle contain a known predetermined number of strips.
Manufacture of such strips is more efficient if the reagent coatings are applied to pieces of backing material that are much larger than an individual strip. It is then necessary to cut the coated backing material into strips and to assemble a predetermined number of the strips for insertion into each bottle Strip production rate, using prior apparatus for performing the cutting and batch assembling operations, is undesirably slow. For example, cutting successive transverse strips from a roll or length of coated material involves cutting one strip at a time and the operation does not itself separate the strips into discrete batches each containing a predetermined quantity of strips for insertion into separate bottles.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.